Royal Philips’ plans to either sell or spin-off its lighting business continues to attract rumors and interest. Over the past couple of weeks, there have been reports of GO Scale Capital and its partners shifting their interest to Philips Lighting after being rebuffed by regulators over its intended purchase of Lumileds, a separate business comprising automotive lighting and LED components. A report from the Wall Street Journal later said that U.S.-based private equity firms Blackstone Group and Onex Corp. are teaming up to make a bid for Philips Lighting. Meanwhile the company continues to prepare to float Philips Lighting independently in an initial public offering, having recently appointed Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to coordinate an Amsterdam listing of the division, according to UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
Most estimates put the value of the business at around $5 billion. The unit accounts for a third of Philips’ revenues, producing approximately $8.4 billion in 2015. Philips said on numerous occasions that it hopes to have a sale or spin-off done within the first half of 2016.